Jan 21, 2024. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Tel Aviv.
Thousands
of people demonstrated in Israel on Saturday against the government of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Participants at a rally in Tel Aviv demanded an immediate end to the war in Gaza in order to free the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas.
"Stop
the fighting, pay the price!" Israeli media quoted one of the speakers,
whose cousin is among the hostages, as saying.
Following
an initial exchange of 105 hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners at the end of
November, Hamas has said it won't release the remaining hostages abducted from
southern Israel on October 7 until Israel's military withdraws from the Gaza
Strip.
Netanyahu
and his fellow campaigners, however, say that Hamas needs to be defeated
militarily to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
In the
northern port city of Haifa, several hundred supporters of the left-wing
Chadash party demanded the prime minister's resignation on Saturday. Several
hundred people also took to the streets in Jerusalem against the Netanyahu
government.
In front of
Netanyahu's home in the coastal town of Caesarea, 50 kilometres north of Tel
Aviv, relatives of the hostages and supporters had started a permanent protest
on Friday evening.
"We
expect serious people...to come out and give us real answers about how our
loved ones are doing," the Haaretz newspaper quoted a hostage's relative
as saying in its online edition.
Hamas and
other extremist groups attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200
people and kidnapping around 240.
Israel
responded to the worst massacre in its history with massive airstrikes and a
ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. Currently, 136 hostages are still being
held in the coastal area. Israel assumes that around 25 of them are no longer
alive.
Agencies
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